New Specifications Support ATM at Edge of MPLS Cores

The ATM Forum has released two new specifications to help service providers leverage the benefits of ATM at the edge of their networks while deploying MPLS as part of their core network consolidation.



The new specifications enable ATM routing and signaling (PNNI and AINI) to be extended among ATM networks attached to an MPLS core, thus maintaining the availability and resource efficiency of ATM services. MPLS can thereby be used as a transport for the existing ATM traffic without potentially costly changes being made to the network edge.



The new specifications describe how to continue supporting current ATM SVC & SPVC services, and other services that depend on them, together with ways to support ATM Quality of Service.



The two new specifications are available for download on The ATM Forum website:



ATM-MPLS Network Interworking, Version 2.0 ftp://ftp.atmforum.com/pub/approved-specs/af-aic-0178.001.pdf

ATM-MPLS Network Interworking Signalling Specification 1.0 ftp://ftp.atmforum.com/pub/approved-specs/af-cs-0197.000.pdfhttp://www.atmforum.com